BetterFit Text launches: A data-driven health service that lets doctors monitor patient symptoms

Tonight, 13 startups are preparing to present to a room packed with investors, industry analysts and media at TechStars Demo Day in Boston. BetterFit Technologies, operating in the healthcare space, is one of those startups, and is launching its first product: BetterFit Text, a “simple health monitoring service,” currently in beta.

At its essence, BetterFit Text is a text messaging-powered service that lets patients report their symptoms and answer questions regarding how they are feeling. According to BetterFit, the new service utilizes the startup’s artificial intelligence platform to “change how patients and doctors engage with health data and each other.” Its goal with this release is to help individuals get highly personalized information that’s most relevant to their health.

As for how the product actually works, BetterFit functions as an “ongoing text message dialog between the patient” and its platform. Every day, a user receives one or two questions, asking about their symptoms and health (e.g.: have you needed to take Asprin or Advil for a headache in the past week?). These text messages are customized by your drug regime, known conditions, and your previous answers.

BetterFit explains:

For example, if after a couple of questions it is clear acne is not an issue for you, they won’t ask about it again for another few months. With every question you answer, BetterFit’s algorithm updates your risk profile to ask better questions in the future.

A user’s response is automatically interpreted through the startup’s natural language processing software, and users are encouraged to report symptoms independently, without a prompt, like so:

“btw having an awful headache” or “lower back pain since morning”

With all of this data, BetterFit is able to understand exactly what’s going on with each patient in relation to their medication, and that data can then be leveraged to aid in making healthcare decisions, like determining the best treatments for patients.

BetterFit is far from being a design-focused company, like many data-heavy startups are, but by sticking with text messaging and tapping into natural language processing, the company may be able to sidestep any usability problems through a simple but potentially highly useful service.

Check out BetaFit Text via the link below, and let us know what you think.

➤ BetterFit Text (free for the first 1,000 users)

Image credit: Pixland / Thinkstock